28 Oct 10th-Oct 16th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | True Crime A new novel paints a fresh picture of Phoenix’s most famous murders. BY GERI KOEPPEL T he murder was grisly and grotesque. Two young women were shot and killed, and their bodies stuffed into luggage — one of them cut into pieces to fit — and shipped on a train from Phoenix to Los Angeles. The story made headlines nationwide at the time and has captivated people since Agnes “Anne” LeRoi and Hedvig “Sammy” Samuelson were found mangled and dead in L.A.’s Central Station on Oct. 18, 1931. Their friend Winnie Ruth Judd was tried and convicted of one of the “trunk murders” but spared the death penalty at the last minute. Judd was later declared insane and spent nearly 40 years in jails, an insane asylum and prison. And that’s just the jumping-off point for one of the most bizarre and fascinating crimes of the past 100 years. Over the years, the story has been the subject of magazine articles, nonfiction books, plays, movies, podcasts and TV shows. And now, a new true crime novel will be released on Oct. 8, just in time for the 93rd anniversary, offering a new perspective on the case. Laurie Notaro, a former Phoenician known for her first-person humor books, spent a decade doing original research to write “The Murderess: A Novel’ (absent her trademark sarcasm). She’ll talk about it on a panel at noon on Oct. 20 at the Crescent Ballroom and sign copies, which will be sold onsite by Changing Hands Bookstore. “I wanted to prove Ruth didn’t do it,” Notaro says in a phone interview from her home in Eugene, Oregon. “I wanted her to be this misunderstood heroine, and in many, many ways, she was.” ‘A kind, caring person who killed people’ However, Notaro doesn’t buy the idea — put forth in other sources and by many locals throughout the decades — that the petite, mild-mannered Judd committed the crimes in self-defense or didn’t do them at all. “What I found was inconsistent with the story that I knew,” she states. Instead, she adds, “Ruth Judd was a kind, caring person who killed people.” That doesn’t mean Notaro portrays her as unsympathetic. She used reams of original research — court transcripts, diaries, personal letters, and more — to piece together a nuanced portrait of Winnie Ruth Judd and show the reader her point of view. Unlike other historical fiction that plays fast and loose with reality for the sake of a good story, though, “I stuck as close to the facts as I possibly could,” Notaro says. The true tale includes jealousy, a good ol’ boy power network, Depression-era desper- ation, pretty flappers, sex, drugs and more twists, turns and subplots than any modern murder show. In addition to being confident Judd was guilty, Notaro is also convinced LeRoi and Samuelson were lesbian lovers, a relation- ship portrayed in the novel. But she also tells the story of three women who were all victims of their time and gender and got a raw deal in many ways. Jarrod Riddle, a Phoenix historian and tour guide who’ll be on the Oct. 20 panel with other historians, journalists and more, says, “It’s got every level of intrigue that a case like this could offer. And Winnie Ruth Judd in 1969, in custody after seven years of freedom under a new name following an escape — one of many — from Arizona State Hospital. (Courtesy of AP Newsfeatures Photo) Laurie Notaro spent a decade researching Winnie Ruth Judd and the trunk murders to write The Murderess: A Novel. (Courtesy of AP Newsfeatures Photo) >> p 30 ▼ Arts & Culture
